COUNTRY LIFE. 129 



in himself the three greatest characters on earth : he is a 

 priest, a husbandman, and the father of a family." This 

 sentence embraces a set of ideas peculiar to Protestant 

 and agricultural England. The whole romance is only a 

 commentary upon it; it is a picture of the interior of a 

 poor country clergyman's family. The Protestant minis- 

 ter, with a wife and children, has other duties than the 

 Catholic priest; he must support his family, and this 

 necessity obliges him to combine temporal work with 

 his spiritual occupations. The farm which Mr Prim- 

 rose rented was only twenty acres, but it satisfied his 

 ambition ; he cultivates it with care, assisted by his son 

 Moses, while his wife, who had not her match for goose- 

 berry wine, prepares the simple repast of the household. 

 On Sunday, when the weather is fine, the family, after 

 Divine service, go and seat themselves under a shady bank 

 of hawthorn and honeysuckle; the table-cloth is spread 

 upon a heap of hay, and they dine happily in the open 

 air; while two blackbirds in opposite hedges answer to 

 each other's notes, and the tame robin comes and pecks 

 the crumbs from the fair hands of the vicar's daughters. 

 It is in the midst of one of these happy scenes that the 

 hunted stag is run down, and the lord of the manor upon 

 his horse makes his appearance. 



In other novels, the heroes are all represented as living 

 in the country. Among others, Mr Western is a type of 

 the squire great hunters and drinkers, according to all 

 accounts. As we approach our own time, the love of 

 natural scenery becomes more and more general, and is 

 taken up by the arts. Poets sing only of the beauties of 

 English landscape, painters represent only farm scenes. 

 The lakes, with their wild scenery, give inspiration to a 

 special school. The more war rages on the Continent, so 

 does the natural love of contrast in man turn the mind 



